A long black evening dress with a plunging neckline worn by the late Princess Diana during her engagement to Prince Charles fetched 192,000 pounds (277,000 dollars) at auction in London today, according to dpa. Auction house Kerry Taylor said the gown was bought by a fashion museum in Chile, which paid almost four times as much as the pre-sale estimate of 50,000 pounds. The black taffeta dress, worn by the royal bride-to-be to a formal dinner in London in March, 1981, was widely seen as having launched the then 19-year-old Diana as the most glamorous member of Britain's royal family. It was created by former couple Elizabeth and David Emanuel, who would later design Diana's wedding dress. "The transformation was incredible. She arrived looking like the nursery school teacher she was, but now she looked like a movie star," said Elizabeth Emanuel after seeing Diana in the black dress for the first time. As the royal wedding approached, in July, 1981, the princess returned the gown to the designers to have it altered as she had lost weight. But instead a new one was made and the original remained forgotten for many years.
